Annual Landcare CelebrationAn opportunity for member and neighbouring groups of the Singleton Shire Landcare Network and interested landcarers to meet and re-establish relationshipshttps://landcare.nsw.gov.au/groups/mid-hunter-landcare-network/annual-landcare-celebration-and-agmhttps://landcare.nsw.gov.au/@@site-logo/landcare-nsw-logo-200.png

Annual Landcare Celebration

An opportunity for member and neighbouring groups of the Singleton Shire Landcare Network and interested landcarers to meet and re-establish relationships

Annual Landcare Celebration

An opportunity for member and neighbouring groups of the Singleton Shire Landcare Network and interested landcarers to meet and re-establish relationships

Reaching Out -

LLCI014-033

The issue

The regular AGM for Singleton Shire Landcare Network was coming... The members were sparse and attrition had whittled away participation to only a tiny handful of die-hard committee members who were left to complete a couple of major, long term projects. There were no new members in sight... It looked like a formality of re-electing the same people to the same positions which they were increasingly becoming tired of...

The solution

It was envisaged to use funding to hold a celebratory event and to invite all the member groups of Singleton Shire Landcare Network to re-engage and present on each groups activities,engage the wider community and connect with neighboring groups from the Dungog and Cessnock LGAs.

The Singleton Infantry Museum was chosen as the site for the event due to it's central location in the LGA boundaries. Food, music, guest speakers and a museum tour following the event were also offered. The offical 'AGM' elections were allocated only a portion of the schedule, after the networking, group reports and guest speakers.

The impact

This engagement strategy brought 23 people to the event, almost entirely volunteers from across the Mid Hunter region. There were two stakeholders from LLS as well as the LLC. The majority of people had never met, had not seen each other in a very long time, or were new to Landcare. All participants were asked to evaluate the event, all scoring highly and verbally describing a renewed invigoration or desire to get involved in Landcare, with some new participants already getting involved in subsequent activities.

This event was also an opportunity to introduce the 'Mid Hunter LLC region' to representatives of groups in the area, with the view that some participants may become involved in the regional steering group, or at least to begin the dialogue about it among groups.

Learnings

The event was a great success, however the timing schedule was blown out. This was seen as a negative to some and a positive for others.